Seda Papoyan. “In order for a woman to succeed, it is necessary that they simply do not hinder her”…

In July of this year, the international two-day conference FemInno was held for the first time in Armenia, the purpose of which was to emphasize the role and innovative potential of women in the fields of technology, business, and science, and thereby contribute to the leadership and advancement of women. WomenNet.am spoke with Seda Papoyan, the executive director of “Girls in Tech Armenia” NGO, the author of this significant and interesting initiative.

 “We started thinking about holding an international conference promoting women’s empowerment 5 years ago. However, the opportunity to implement it was provided only this year,” said Seda Papoyan, the founder of the conference, expressing hope that the conference will be continuous and will be held every year.

Considering “male decision-makers” as the target group, the team made every effort to end up with a “solidarity conference” in which men would not only participate, but also change their approaches and attitudes towards women’s participation and potential. She is convinced that women need more visible state support in the form of encouragement, guidance, financing.

NA Deputy Speaker Hakob Arshakyan was among the male speakers of the conference. The organizers of the event, on the one hand, notice that participation at such a state level contains a certain message that state institutions are open to involving women, on the other hand, they state that gender equality still remains at the level of speeches and words, and the reality is completely different.

As for the participation of women in the IT sector, which, by the way, in Armenia is higher than the average index in the world, according to Papoyan, there are problems with women’s leadership here as well.

Within FemInno, many projects aimed at the leadership and advancement of women and girls are being implemented in Armenia. Most of them are done by international and local non-governmental organizations.

In particular, FemInno has received support from a number of international IT companies operating in Armenia, including: Humanize, PMI Science, Adobe, Synopsys, Siemens, Semrush, Miro, ZEVIT, IPONWEB, Align and more. All of these companies, without exception, share the same value system in promoting a culture of diversity and inclusion in the workforce.

1. Papoyan emphasizes that there is a need to increase the efficiency of state participation and state role in this field.

Taking into account the local and international experience, my interlocutor observes: “the situation in the whole world with respect to women is almost the same everywhere, the problems are almost the same, and so far, the stereotypes are being overcome and those women who are not afraid, who find enough confidence in themselves, are moving forward to do what interests them, what they want.”

Speaking about her own experience, S. Papoyan is honest: like many people, she still faces all kinds of stereotypes, but they do not stop her from moving forward.

Seda is sure that a woman needs only two things to succeed. firstly, they should not interfere with her or show discrimination, and secondly, women should not be afraid and go after their goal and not think about how they will perceive her or how they will treat her…

Full text in Armenian